Railway rail



Patented Apr. 10, 1934 UNITED STATES RAILWAY RAIL McLeod Thomson,Atlantic City, N. J., assignor to The Thomson Rail Corporation, acorporation of New York Application December 30, 1932, Serial No.649,654

4 Claims.

This invention relates to railway rails, and has generally in View toprovide a rail having a novel sectional shape and distribution of metaldesigned particularly to retard rail end batter i and corrugating of thetop surface of the rail by locomotive and car Wheels passing thereover,thereby to avoid or reduce attendant disadvantages, and at the same timeto obtain advantages Which are not possessed by rails of presentcornmercial types.

Due to increasing Wheel loads and higher speeds of more recent yearsrail end batter has become one of the most serious conditionsencountered in railway track and presents an exli tremely diiiicultproblem with which to cope.

Its principal cause can be attributed to the high unit pressure ofpassing wheels arriving at the ends of the rail, Where the metal, due tobeing unrestrained, cold-ows over the rail ends and j results in theformation of depressions and fractures in and at the top of the rail atthe ends thereof. The more rapid batter occurs in the early stages ofservice before the metal has become hardened by the cold rolling actionof pass- 251 ing locomotive and car Wheels, and thereafter is to someextent retarded although even at the retarded rate batter continues toprogress in length and depth throughout the time the rail is in service,but by the time there exists any appreciable resistance to batter due tothe cold rolling action of passing locomotive and car Wheels theprincipal damage has been done. The result is a greatly shortened raillife, increased expense of maintenance and a rough and noisy ridingtrackrvvith acceleration of wear to wheels and equipment, as Well as tothe track structure by vibration and oscillation. Consequently it hasbeen proposed and trials have been made of 4 various methods ofincreasing the hardness of rails either in their entirety or at the railends before being placed in service. Also methods have been proposed andtrials have been made of hardening the top surface of rail ends while inservice, but for one reason or another these methods of providing relieffrom batter have thus far been unsatisfactory and have proved to beundependable and dangerous because of resultant change in the physicalproperties of the steel by such treatment. Also such methods have provedto be expensive, insufficient, or impracticable. A

Following flovv of the metal over the rail ends, spalling and chippingfrequently occurs at the '55. rail ends by reason of the small verticalmove- (Cl. 23S-148) ment of the rails until finally it becomes necessaryeither to remove and crop the battered and spaled rail ends, build themup by additions of metal welded thereto, or to relegate them to lessimportant branch tracks, yards or sidings, but none of these expedientsrepresents a satisfactory solution of the problem involved because allare costly in labor and material. The first represents a great expensethrough the cost of cropping and the loss of many tons of valuable metaland increases the number of joints by further use of the shortenedrails. The second is only a temporary and expensive expedient forincreasing the life of rails and often proves costly by furtherunsatisfactory service, as Well as creating a condition which may resultin further spalling or complete fracture of the rail end, While thethird relegates to inferior tracks rails that otherwise would give longservice in their original location.

On the subject of the flow of metal in the rail head under Wheel loadsone well known authority has stated that: the flow of the metal of thehead apparent to the eye and witnessed very generally in portions of thetrack, may be taken as evidence of exhausted ductility of the metal. Theability of the steel to elongate, as found in the primitive state of therail before going into service, is lost by reason of its development,and the rail at first tough and capable of being bent, is now brittleand will bend only to a limited extent before rupture. The brittlenessis due to the flow of metal at or immediately below the running surfaceof the rail head. The structural continuity has not been destroyed, asmay be shown upon annealing the metal, which effects a restoration inits ability to elongate. A rail from service will not bend well With thehead on the tension side, since the surface metal has been subjected tocold flow in advance of its being worn away by abrasion.

Another serious condition encountered in railway track is corrugating ofthe rails by locomotive and car Wheels passing thereover. In otherWords, the top surfaces of present commercial rails in service soonbecome undulated or have imparted thereto a Wave contour Which isconducive to rough and noisy riding and to early deterioration of wheelsand equipment as Well as the rail and general track structure due tovibration and oscillation resulting therefrom. As in the case of railend batter, considerable research and study has been and at present isbeing devoted to a determination of the causes of rail corru` gating anda solution of the problem presented thereby, but sc far the causes havenot been conclusively ascertained nor has a remedy been provided, otherthan a slow and expensive method which involves grinding out thecorrugations.

The present invention is predicated on the fact that since the topsurfaces of rail of present commercial types are transversely crowned orare of convex contour, and since Wheel loads therefore are transmittedto the rail head at or near the middle thereof, the metal on the topsurface of the head by reason of being restrained against flowinglaterally, can flow only longitudinally, and therefore overflows therail ends, while along the intervening portions of the length of therail where there is resistance to iiow by surrounding metal, lumps orcorrugations of varying lengths and depths are formed and developed.

Accordingly, the present invention has in View to provide a rail havinga sectional shape such that the rolling action of locomotives and carwheels passing thereover will produce primarily a lateral flow of themetal thereof as distinguished from a longitudinal ow of the metal,whereby corrugating of the top surface and overflow of metal at the railends with attendant disadvantages is considerably retarded and in alarge measure eliminated.

With the foregoing and other purposes in view, which will become morefully apparent as the nature of the invention is better understood, thesame consists in the novel features of construction and arrangement aswill be hereinafter more fully described, illustrated in theaccompanying drawing and defined in the appended claims.

In the drawing:-

Figure 1 is a sectional perspective view of a rail of standard typeconstructed in accordance with the invention.

Figure 2 is a similar view illustrating the invention embodied in. arail of the headfree type.

Figure 3 is a detail View of two adjoining rail ends, partly in section,illustrating a modification wherein th-e top cavity of the rail head islimited in extent to a portion of the rail head at and adjacent to theend thereof.

Referring to the drawing in detail, it will be observed that theinvention resides primarily in forming by any suitable means the topsurface l0 ofthe head l2 of the rail R with a concaved or dishedtransverse contour instead of flat or convex contour as has been thegeneral practice heretofore.

By reason of the foregoing constructionnumerous vdisadvantagesheretofore encountered are partly or entirely avoided and at the sametime advantages are obtained which are not possessed by rail of presentcommercial types.

The dishing or concaving of the rail surface as indicated at l0 resultsin the formation of a rib or rib-like contour 14 of metal along the topsurface of the rail at each side thereof, and preferably the surfaces ofthese ribs are of convex curvature and merge gradually into the concaveor dished surface 10, and into the sides of the rail head, as shown.Thus, locomotive and car wheels instead of contacting initially with therail head across an appreciable portion of the top` width thereof,contact primarily and initially with the tops of the rib-like contours14 whereby correspondingly less friction and less resistance to freerolling of the wheels is encountered.

Primarily, the medial dishing or concaving of the top of the rail headpermits the metal constituted by the relatively outwardly disposed ribsifil to iiovv inwardly under the rolling action of wheels passing overthe rail, with the result that instead of the metal being forcedlongitudinally and forming corrugations along the length of the rail,and overowing the rail ends, it is, due to its lack of restraint againstinward displacement, displaced inwardly in a uniform manner with atendency to lill the convexity. Thus, instead of corrugations beingformed along the top surface of the rail the ribs are rolled downwardlyin a uniform manner to afford a straight wheel contacting surface alongthe length of the rail, so that this desirable condition is establishedsimultaneously with the gradual retarded and restricted hardening of therail by the cold rolling action of the passing wheels. Moreover, becauseof the concave contour of the top of the rail, permitting the metal tobe displaced inwardly, overflow of metal at the ends of the rail is to aconsiderable extent eliminated and at least effectively retarded anddiminished, so that the numerous and serious disadvantages heretoforeexperienced due to this condition are in a large measure avoided.

The present invention is also applicable to meet a condition where therailroad may not desire the entire rail length conforming to thetransversely concaved contour described herein, but confined to thatportion of the rail at and in approximate relation to the rail endbatter zone. rlhat is to say, the invention can be incorporated in arail by grinding or re-conditioning the top surface thereof within theso-called batter area, for instance, to the extent of nine or ten inchesmore or less from each rail end, as indicated by the reference number10a in Fig. 3 of the drawing. Such a contour, as depicted in Fig. 3would provide relief from and retard rail end batter and of course couldbe followed as wear proceeds by subsequent work of the same kind.

By the use of rail having a top contour as shown and functioning asdescribed a stronger rail with material increase in the life of the railas compared with present commercial types of rail is obtained due to theelimination of wheelV contact pressure at the center and adjoiningportions of the top of the rail, particularly through the stages beforecold rolling and hardening of the metal by passing wheels has occurred,and at the same time there is obtained the desirable result of decreasedresistance to train movements. Moreover, the present rail lends itselfreadily to being reconditioned either at its ends or throughout itslength by a re-rolling process or in other suitable manner; or areconditioning of the rail in service locally at its ends or at otherpoints in the rail where corrugaticn has occurred or may be likely tooccur or throughout its length by grinding or in any other suitablemanner or with new or used rail in or out 1 of track by any suitablearrangement or means effects a saving in labor and material over thatrequired in connection with present types of rail by reason of providinga safer track, increasing the normal life of rails, joint bars and othertrack material and reducing the necessity of reconditioning corrugatedsurfaces and rail ends; requires less replacement of rails by reasonv offractured or chipped rail ends; requires less labor and material tomaintain a satisfactory line and surface; and provides,` a smoother andquieter riding track with the accompanying advantage of reduction ofVibration and oscillation with consequentpincreased; life and service oftrack andv equipment.

Without further description it is thought that the features andadvantages of the invention will be readily apparent to those skilled inthe art, and it will of course be understood that changes in the form,proportion and minor details of construction may be resorted to, withoutdeparting from the spirit of the invention and scope of the appendedclaims.

I claim:-

1. A railway rail including a head having a rib of metal at its topsurface to either side of and projecting above its medial portion, saidribs of metal having transversely convexed surfaces merging into thesides and into the medial top surface of the head.

2. A railway rail including a head having formed in its top surface atransverse concavity which is concaved only to such an extent that therolling action of locomotive and car wheels passing thereover willproduce a lateral iiow of the metal thereof until the concavity issubstantially eliminated.

3. A railway rail having its top surface reformed or reconditionedthroughout its rail end batter area to provide the same with atransverse concavity which is concaved only to such an extent that therolling action of locomotive and car wheels passing thereover willproduce a lateral flow of the metal until the concavity is substantiallyeliminated.

4. A railway rail having its top surface reformed or reconditioned in alocalized area to provide the same with a transverse concavity which isconcaved only to such an extent that the rolling action of locomotiveand car Wheels passing thereover will produce a lateral iiow of themetal until the concavity is substantially eliminated.

MCLEOD THOMSON.

